Chargeurs
1988
Beyond shipping
Chargeurs Réunis (United Shippers) started life as a transport business in 1872. Despite diversifying into textiles and media, investors continued to associate it with the less glamorous world of shipping. In 1988 Chargeurs Réunis decided to raise its profile with the financial community, and asked Wolff Olins to help.
Flying stars
Wolff Olins recommended that the group name should be simply Chargeurs, and that the group be divided into three main activities: textiles, communications and transportation. We went on to create a new logo, based on the traditional five stars of Chargeurs Réunis. We put four of the stars on to a dark blue, globe-shaped base, with the fifth orange star outside. The star outside the globe represents movement inside and outside the group. After this, we regenerated the identity of one of the Chargeurs businesses, Pathé, we worked on brand identitles for Chargeurs Textiles, and for several years we produced the group annual report.
Focused diversification
Our work persuaded people to re-evaluate Chargeurs. The market began to see it as a much more sophisticated player, which in turn enabled the group to develop its strategy of focused diversification. The group divested its communications division in 1996, and now concentrates on protective films, technical textiles and wool processing. Now a Eu 600 million business, Chargeurs has changed hugely in the last twenty years, but still flies under the flag of its five-star logo.
